What Attacked this Calf? (Graphic Picture)
 

I just got a call from a Rancher wrt helping with coyotes attacking and killing his calves. It just started happening and he's lost 2 so far. Initially he told me that the damage was around the anus so I was thinking that it was ravens. After seeing the picture, I highly doubt that ravens would do that.

Does this look like the work of a coyote? Maybe couldn't finish the job before the Mother cow ran him off. There are also wolves and bears in that area and the bottom of the wound looks a little like bear claw marks to me.

I'm going to head up there and have a look.

https://i.imgur.com/k1hE3GD.jpg

Dave,

I can't see the picture, but if the calf was consumed-wolves, calf only partially consumed-coyotes. Bears, and cats don't attack the hinds, that is the work of k-9's. It is possible that it is a single wolf as well. Drag the carcass to a tree, and rig a camera on it if you can't find sign. Were the ears and nose eaten?

Spruce

Magpies

That looks to me to be a glancing high power rifle shot. My guess

had a calf taken down this year that i caught the coyote still in the act and the wound looked identical to that one. poor little bugger was still alive when i got there and to top it off i never got the yote :angry3:

one thing to note though is the calf was a lot smaller than the one pictured so i would not rule out wolf.

Bear? That's my guess. Not good regardless, poor little rascal.

Typical wolf attack.

There were two calves with wounds in the same place and both are still alive. The one pictured is probably about 80 lbs and the other is smaller, probably about 60 lbs. The wound on the smaller one is not as deep or wide. It almost looks like it was sliced with a knife (no jagged edges). The Rancher tells me that it only happens on the one quarter and not in any of his other pastures. The calves are in a corral with their Moms and the one cow absolutely freaked right out when we approached. Something really has her spooked. The other cow was pretty docile.

i'd guess coyote….wouldn't a wolf hamstring it? if it's either one, it will have to die now that it's started hunting them.

yeah the calf i had taken was about 50 lb. the way i interpreted it was the coyote caught it on the ground where the mother stashed it and got some good bites in before mom could come and fend him off. when i got there the coyote was circling mum while the ravens were going to town on the open wound. we had a similar wound on a calf last year with no real idea what it was but we only have ravens and yotes.

Seen a wound on a calf at the local vet clinic, same spot on the hip but right to the bone. Could see the hip bone showing, calf survived. No one could figure why the calf stood & let it happen??

Couple weeks later a different dead calf found dead drug backwards in a badger hole.

Could be a coyote, might be a badger. Anything bigger calf won't be walking around.

I've had a calf that was attacked by a wolf before. Injuries were lower down on the leg towards the hamstring. Found it in one of our corral systems in the field where it was cornered. The wolves were chased off before they finished and consumed it.

Also had a horse killed by wolves and same attack injuries lower down in the legs.

That sure looks like a big chunk taken out up higher than I think wolves would do. Could be as others have suggested or just injured on something, piece of machinery, etc.
Hopefully you find some answers and it doesn't happen anymore.

I could post some graphic pictures on another thread if some are interested sometime. I usually never post anything as far as pictures go but wolves and I have had a history.

Best of luck in your investigation.

Well, I guess that I ought to approach this as it being a coyote(s) then. It’s the wrong time of year for me to be running around shooting coyotes but I’ll try to give him at least one evening next week. I don’t know if they’ll come into a call right now but I guess that I’ll find out. Time to learn something new I guess.

I think he got the phage.

Mar pies and ravens will do this.

Yup,to an initial open wound they will sit and peck away.

My thought are coyote or loan wolf run off by cow. Then the wound being so deep looks like ravens started to pick away at the open area.

Right in the sirloin too! Mmmm sirloins ....

Poor little bugger, the birds are relentless

Definitely the work of a " LOAN wolf " and typically keeping in tradition ,,

got his POUND of FLESH,,, lmao :sHa_sarcasticlol:


Wonder if it was a Loan wolf from the TD or the Credit Union :thinking-006:

Neighbor had the same problem. Had a couple killed and 3 wounded just like pictures. Ended up being dogs. He caught one of his own dogs in the act. It would chase it around and grab hold on the top of the hip and hang on. Got rid of dog and problems went away.

cattle damage
 

I don`t see where this calf is from, could be a area where there is no wolf or bear. Every location cattle are raised there are dogs, which was my first suspicion. Coyotes often get blamed when seen cleaning up dead livestock.

I agree on the wrongfull accusation. Same goes for grizzly bear. I talked to fish and wildlife officer she said many cow carcasses that bears have fed on have all three stomachs empty. More than likely the cow die before the bear showed up.

It appears it could be a bear ok , because of the two or three rip marks , THEN I would say the birds got at it .
If it was dogs or coyotes there would be other bite marks , at the back end also . I am betting he has a bear , predating on his cattle , Wonder if nearby farmers had any hits? If it was dogs there likely would be more attacks , what about finding out if there are any dogs large enough in the vicinity to cause this damage? I would do the elimination thing to find out .

I think I'd lean toward bear too if I saw that on any of mine. Startled bear case, bear attacked, wounded the calf, then fled.. (then) birds aggravated the wound thereafter.

I came across a bull once a couple years back with claw-marks high on his rear on one-side, then more marks down low on his opposite side. In that bulls case, the pasture he was at is heavily wooded, had 120 pairs grazing it, and likely he was cruising someplace thick on the pasture looking for cows & startled a sow with cubs, (so she charged & jumped him briefly for it)

2000lb bull is lots tougher than a little 175lb calf, so I can see an obvious wound opening on soft calf-hide in an event like that pretty easy.. and birds pestering it afterward.

My opinion by experience is that coyotes tear the *****holes out before opening an animal on a flank or loin.. they go for the stomach & guts even before meat or bone. So I doubt that that's a coyote job, maybe, but I'd lean otherwise sooner. Wolf too, if there were wolves making trouble you'd see legs and tendons torn up on quite a few animals flagging the situation as wolf.

Dogs. I couldn't comment.

I think it was a wolf. I chased a wolf off a calf about that size that had been bitten just ahead of the pelvis and near its spine. The canine teeth punctured the calf's guts and it died overnight. I also found a dead calf once that had a single bite wound between its pelvis and ribs that I suspect was a wolf. I had another calf that was covered in bite marks and infested with maggots along its back from tail to shoulders. That was the same summer I had all of the the other wolf problems (I lost about 20 calves in total).

Magpies

Here's a link to a good article on identifying the source of livestock predation:

Coyote Predation of Livestock

There was another good one I had found years ago, if I find the link, I will post it here.

First I have seen a few predator killed livestock, and a few injured.

Second, in my experience, without seeing the kill take place, it is all guesswork.

One thing I have noticed is that members of the dog family, domestic dogs, Coyote, and Wolves tend to go for the back legs and head in the initial attack. Once the animal is down they seem to prefer to go for the stomach area.

Bears will sometimes just take a big chunk, usually from high on the back or shoulder.

Given the little information available to me in this case I would guess it was a Black Bear.

Probably a bear. Canines don’t use their claws like that, and those aren’t tooth marks. Could be a young mountain lion as well, one that doesn’t have its technique perfected yet

Pretty sure this is it - very thorough. Link here.

In the end, what Keg said is right on the ball - it's really guesswork. But at least you can narrow down the most likely perpetrators...